


Shadow Side

by idrilsdarkwritings (idrilhadhafang)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Dark Han Solo, Dark Leia Organa, Dark Luke, M/M, Pilot Poe Dameron, Sith Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 11:14:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilsdarkwritings
Summary: A young Ben Solo is raised as a Sith in a galaxy where Han, Leia and Luke fell to the Dark Side.





	Shadow Side

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidgardianNerd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidgardianNerd/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: For MidgardianNerd — sorry it took so long!

As far as Prince Ben Solo knows, he’s always known the castle walls. 

The walls of the Empire. 

He knows its history — how his uncle and grandfather overthrew the Emperor together, how his parents joined them. 

They are strong, his family. All of them, and Ben is proud of them. 

He couldn’t have asked for better. Some call them monsters, but they’re protectors of the galaxy. Would the Republic have been any better?

Ben can hardly imagine. 

***

It’s when Ben is eighteen that they train him. 

It’s his uncle’s insistence, actually. “He’s old enough,” his uncle says. Ben overhears it all in hushed whispers and soft murmurs. They’re trying to keep it all from him. Of course they are. Acting like everything’s fine and nothing’s wrong. But Ben knows better. He always has. He’s not stupid. 

He knows that they’re planning something. For him, at that. 

Even as he listens in closer, his father sounds disbelieving. “You think Ben’s going to be trained in that Force nonsense? Any of it? You must be out of your mind.”

”After all this time, you don’t understand,” Luke says. “The power of the Force, the sheer scope of it, is something that you could never truly see.”

”What’s there to see?” Han says. “Besides, Ben...” A pause. “What exactly are you going to do to him, kid?”

”You think that I’m going to hurt him?”

”He might not make it through. You know what a sensitive kid he is.”

Silence. 

“If I didn’t know better,” Luke says, “I’d say Ben’s the last speck of the Light in you.”

His father pauses. Ben knows he doesn’t have a response to that. 

Luke continues. “You can be assured, Han. I won’t hurt Ben.”

Leia interjects in that moment. “Ben has to be trained. Without guidance...”

”He wouldn’t,” Han says. 

“It’s possible,” Leia says. 

Ben knows that he would never go over to the Rebellion. It’s something that he simply would never do. He can’t picture it, betraying his family, and he doubts he ever will. 

He just won’t. 

It’s that night that his father speaks to him. “You’ll always be my boy,” he says. “No matter what they call you...you’ll always be my boy.”

***

They refer to him as Darth Kylo. Even kneeling before his uncle and getting the name that simply means him, the boy formerly named Ben Solo can’t help but feel his heart patter with excitement. This is the name that means him. Kylo looks up at his uncle and thanks him.

“Don’t thank me just yet,” his uncle says. “We still have work to do before you become a true Sith Master. You’re, right now, a hopeful. You’re fumbling towards the title, but you haven’t yet acquired it.”

And Kylo knows he will do anything to be worthy of the title. He truly will. He’s only eighteen, but he’s already full of hope, and fire. 

It’s mentioning it to his father that it’s like a flash of misgivings appears on his father’s face. Kylo feels the excitement drain away to be replaced by hesitation. “Dad...?”

”Just don’t forget,” Han says. “Who you really are.”

”I won’t,” Kylo says. “I promise.”

And yet even at eighteen, when he thinks he can have it all, he wonders if he can keep that promise.


End file.
